


You Kept This?

by cold_nights_summer_days



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kind of canon adjacent i guess, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, One Second, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, angst for like, no beta we die like men, takes place after homecoming but infinity war doesn't happen in this timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 07:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18987937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: Peter discovers that Tony keeps the pictures kids send in to him. He's even more surprised when he finds out Tony kept his.





	You Kept This?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bucket_1917](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bucket_1917/gifts).



> I wrote this ages ago (back in October 2018, actually) and decided to post it today because I had nothing better to do. Hope you enjoy this short lil fluffy thing, and as always, comments and criticism are welcome.

The ride from Queens to the compound was quiet, but not awkward. Peter had spent enough time in the car with Happy to know that conversation wasn’t exactly his favourite pass-time in the world and that it was easier to scroll through Instagram and Snapchat. Sometimes he would listen to music and watch the countryside slide past, but there were only so many times you could watch cows wandering grassy fields. 

Peter was grateful once the compound finally came into view. He had almost come to think of this place as a second home, considering the amount of time he spent there. Hell, he even had his own room there. Most of his time spent at the compound was on the weekends to attend training sessions and upgrade the suit. There were also a few times he had to come out here because he got injured on patrol, but those were few and far between. 

When Happy pulled up in front of the main building, Peter wasted no time in grabbing his backpack from the seat behind him and rushing into the lobby. After Peter had quickly dropped his things off in his room, he headed towards Mr. Stark’s office. Sure, F.R.I.D.A.Y. had probably informed him of Peter’s arrival, or even if she hadn’t Peter could ask her to, but he preferred to do it in person. Plus, he was eager to start whatever Mr. Stark had planned for him this weekend. 

As per usual, Mr. Stark was on the phone. It must not have been a very serious conversation though, because he was leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. When he saw Peter open the door, he quickly said his good byes before hanging up the phone.

“Hey kid. How was school?” Tony asked. 

“It wasn’t too bad, other than the usual annoying classmates and boring classwork.” Peter answered, but he was slightly distracted by the papers on Tony’s desk. His desk was normally cluttered, so it was not this part that caught Peter’s attention. It was the fact that they appeared to have red and gold crayon. Tony followed Peter’s eye to the stack of crayon coloured papers. 

“What are those?” Peter asked. He had a cheeky smile plastered across his face. He started to crack a joke about it, but Mr. Stark spoke first. 

“They’re . . . nothing. Just some old, um, pictures that kids have sent in.” He said, moving to gather them up and put them away. In doing this, he gave Peter a perfect line of sight to the picture on top. It was sloppy, obviously done by someone younger than ten, and showed a scene from the Stark Expo. There was a thank you note written at the bottom. Shock coursed through Peter’s veins. He recognized it as something he had drawn when he was seven, just a few days after Mr. Stark had saved him at the Expo. 

“Oh my god. You actually kept that?” Peter said. Tony looked up at him from where he was busy trying to shove the pictures into any desk drawer that they would fit in. 

“What do you mean?” He asked defensively. Pepper was the only person who knew that Tony kept these pictures, well aside from Peter now. 

“The one from the Expo. I drew that when I was like, what, seven? I didn’t even think it would get to you.” Peter laughed. He was surprised to discover that his ever-stoic mentor would keep random pictures drawn by even more random seven year olds. 

“You drew this?” Mr. Stark asked, holding up the picture in question. Even though Peter laughed and nodded his head, it made Tony feel guilty. He had guessed that the picture was from the kid he had saved, based on what it showed, and that there weren’t any other people around that he noticed, which meant that the kid who had been at the Expo was Peter.

“That kid, that was you. Wasn’t it?” He asked. Peter nodded again, but this time his smile had faded. He had been around Mr. Stark enough to recognize his “guilty” face. On nights when they were both working late in the lab, neither in the mood for sleep, Peter would notice how Tony would fall into a trance, thinking about everything that had happened, that he thought he had caused. Tony tried to hide it behind sarcasm and wise-cracks, but Peter knew it was there. 

“Look, Mr. Stark, it was nine years ago, almost ten. Don’t start beating yourself up over it all over again.” Peter said. Peter wasn’t very good at this emotions thing, but he knew that the last thing Mr. Stark needed was to worry about old news. 

“I’m not-“

“Yes you are.”

“Okay, maybe. But Peter, what if you had actually gotten hurt that day?” Tony said, his voice tired. Almost more so than usual. 

“But I didn’t! I’m fine, Mr. Stark, really. Don’t worry about it.” Peter argued. Tony knew that no matter how hard he tried, Peter wouldn’t let him lose this battle. So instead, he opted out of it. 

“Okay. I promise I wont worry about it. But you should go get settled in. Weve got a project to start after dinner.” Tony said. Peter looked like he wanted to protest, but instead left after making him promise, again, that he wouldn’t worry about it. 

Once the door had shut behind Peter, Tony leaned back once in again in his chair, trying his very best not to worry. He pulled the picture that Peter had drawn from the desk drawer and smiled. 

“Hey F.R.I?” He said, “Order a picture frame. Eight and a half by eleven.”

“What colour, boss?” She replied. 

“Surprise me.”


End file.
